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| U.S. President Barack Obama waves at his election night party in Chicago, Wednesday. Obama swept to an emphatic re-election win over Mitt Romney, forging new history by transcending a dragging economy. / AP-Yonhap |
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) --U.S. President Barack Obama secured re-election Tuesday by carrying almost all of the major battleground states, including Ohio, Wisconsin and Colorado.
Obama has secured at least 270 electoral votes needed to beat Republican candidate Mitt Romney, according to U.S. television networks.
"This happened because of you. Thank you," Obama tweeted to supporters immediately after the reports.
Ballot counting in many states was over, although it continued in some hotly contested states like Virginia and Florida.
As of 10:30 p.m. (Washington time), Obama won 290 electoral votes among the total 538 and Romney took 201. The popular vote nationwide was tied at 49 percent.
Obama's historic triumph will give him four more years in the White House, heralding no big shift in Washington's external policy, including its strategy on Korea.
U.S. voters apparently opted for stability over changes not only in domestic issues but also diplomacy.
Obama's second term will begin in January next year.
U.S. Congress will also maintain the political status quo. In the general elections held along with the presidential polls, Democrats won two more years of control of the Senate, and Republicans kept their majority in the House.
In the general elections held along with the presidential polls, Democrats won two more years of control of the Senate, and Republicans kept their majority in the House of Representatives.
